Barriers to entry are very low in public social networks. Time and again, we see brands put up a Facebook Page, a LinkedIn page, start Tweeting, and then wonder where the value is. Off-domain social networks are an important part of an overall social strategy, but presence alone only gets us part way there. Yes, we should meet our customers where they congregate. But we must have the ability to guide social customer experience in a way that helps drives business objectives.

The customer conversations that happen across the social Web are filled with user generated content that can boost search results, but only if they happen on our own domain. Social customers are willing to advocate on our behalf, but without a social customer experience that motivates the right behavior, they won’t.

Competitive social media strategy today happens in on-domain customer communities where we can continuously innovate the social customer experience. We must have the tools to engage and enlist our social customers, learn what works and what doesn’t, and evolve the social customer experience to better motivate the right behaviors.

With little control over the way our customers experience our brand on sites like Facebook, differentiating ourselves becomes problematic. That’s the problem with social media that we don’t own - its value is constantly at risk. Unlike Facebook pages, online communities are customer networks we own and the way our social customers experience them is entirely up to us.

An online customer community is a central, flexible social customer experience solution that integrates easily with off-domain networks. Importantly, we own all the user-generated content it produces. We can harvest it, analyze it and use it to inform the business. And we can continue to deliver the right social customer experiences for our brand no matter how the social media environment changes.

If we expect to remain competitive today, it’s deeply important that we do more than simply show up on popular social networks. It’s critical that we build insight into the needs and wants of our customers and use that insight to build predictable forecasts for our business. Without the ability to innovate the social customer experience, that insight remains out of our grasp.

The most cutting-edge B2B and B2C brands are placing bets on on-domain, owned, social media hubs where they can control the brand, guide the experience, and drive real business outcomes.

Even brands that have a long track record of success are beginning to realize that when it comes to social media, a business as usual approach doesn’t cut it. While 86% of companies today maintain a Facebook page, many have discovered that simply following the heard isn’t much of a strategy. The fans and likes may roll in, but meaningful results like improved customer satisfaction and increased sales revenue remain elusive.

Why? Because the real power of social media lies in its ability to engage and enlist, not just tally. We must deliver social customer experiences that entice customers to interact with us, share their passions, their insights, and their ideas.

The full power of social media lies in its ability to invite customers to help us meet our business goals. The most successful social brands have strategies for getting their customers to share passion, ideas, and service, and they drive real business outcomes in the process. They entice their social customers to interact and get involved and can accelerate innovation by tapping their social customers for new product ideas.

When consumers can level-up, collect rewards and attain community status through their social customer experiences, they engage with brands in helpful ways and become extensions of sales, support and marketing teams.

Brands who are winning in social have one very important thing in common—they know that the full benefit of social media comes from engaging experiences that enlist social customers to act favorably. And they know that the best place for those experiences is on-domain.